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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Disaster was narrowly avoided at the Smith household today, when 3-year-old Billy took the instructions on his birthday cake a little too literally.

"You could tell he was aiming for the giant '3' candle," said a local relative on the scene, "but fortunately his mom caught him just in time!"

Gee whiz, Dora T., that was a close one.

UPDATE: To the many readers helpfully pointing out that "your" is a misspelling: uh, that's kind of the point, guys. See, he was going to "wee" on his 3, 'cuz that's what the cake said to do - get it? [shaking head]

I'm guessing that this was an "Incredibles" cake, based on the little I can see from this angle. I'd also argue that this might be filed under "Poor Punctuation" as an exclamation point and different spacing might have helped separate the text.

Remember in grade school, if you finished the test early, the teacher would tell you to use the time to go back and check your work? (Okay, she NEVER said this to me, but I heard her tell the smart kids) Why don't these people check their work? Or at least show it to a coworker?

I get it, that it's an "Incredibles" cake, with Mr. and Dash there in the middle (uh, off to the left of the middle?). But why the freaky candles with the black stars on top?? I thought at first they might be street lamps, until I enlarged the photo...

But...but, why not add a few "eeeee"s to the "whee?" Why not have the plastic road piece with yellow lines on it line up with the rest of the yellow lines on the road? Why not use blue rather than pink on a boys cake? Why not just check whether "you are" is contracted as "your" before etching it in stone?

No, you know what, if you want a cake done right don't go to the Piggly Wiggly. Otherwise, if it comes out like this don't complain.

How else was Billy supposed to get the fire out on the candle so the cake could be consumed? Oh..blow out your three....I guess. That sounds kinda dirty though, so wee (although actually is very dirty) would be the pc choice.

Too funny...and of course there's that maddening your/you're debacle. Really folks, it's not that hard! I think that when applying for a cake decorator job, one should have to take one of those multiple choice #2 pencil tests like we all had to do in school. "Which one is the correct sentence?" That would clear up a lot of these wrecks.

Besides the lack of some punctuation, what the hell is going on wit this cake? It sorta looks like it may be Batman (classic Batman, what with the "KAPOW!" and such) but why is part of the street torn up? And what are those things climbing down the buildings of Gotham?

Anon, are you the same one who keeps posting lately that the blogger is trying too hard and the posts aren't good? If you read the other comments you might see a lot of us are still enjoying it. I suppose if Jen did the same type of cakes and same type of jokes every time, the comments would be "can't you come up with anything different?" ;-) There's a perfect fable for this situation: http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=AesFabl.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=283&division=div1

This might be why Dooce closed her comments for such a long time, and even now only opens them now and then for certain posts. Good blogs attract all kinds, Jen. Even the fabulous "geniuses" that want to be ever so helpful to your craft...::shakes head along with Jen::

Glad you pointed out that there was a your/you're misspelling or else I never would've figured out what the cake was supposed to say ('Whee, you're 3!').

It really doesn't help that 'Wee your 3' is written in yellow icing, either. I wondered if maybe the kid's parents were the sort of Dale Earnhardt fans I've heard about who like to make their mark on the infield during NASCAR races.

Well, I finally figured out why the comments are so repetitious. They are held up a long time for review! I came here early this morning and left a comment (using my Google/Blogger identity). I appeared to be the first commenter. I came back tonight to read the comments left by everyone else, and saw that my comment didn't show up first at all. It wasn't even close! Maybe you should drop the comment moderation for commenters who are not anonymous, at least, to speed things up.

The Tiffany-box wedding cake debacle comments suffered from the same problem...hundreds of comments about marshmallow fondant.

@ anon 10:27 - It's true there is a delay due to comment moderation (especially early morning; I don't claim to be up and about when the post is initially published), but more of the repetition is due to folks just not reading the prior comments. This was especially true of the wedding cake post you mentioned. After 50 comments or so are posted, I can't really blame y'all for not wanting to read every single one before making your own comment.

Unfortunately I don't have the option of selecting some comments to go through automatically; it's either all moderated or none. Maybe some day I'll be fabulously wealthy and be able to pay someone to sit and do nothing but moderate comments all day, but 'til then I'm afraid you'll all continue to be at my schedule's mercy. ;)

Just came across your blog by accident - it's hilarious! Whether the 'your' was deliberate or not on this cake, it reminded me of the worst sign I've ever seen in a baker's. I wish I'd had the foresight to take a picture. The sign said: "GATEAUX'S MAID HEAR."

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